DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4
Based on: characters from DC comics
Developed by: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, Phil Klemmer
Written by:
Phil Klemmer, Grainne Godfree, Keto Shimizu, Matthew Maala, James Eagan, Morgan Faust, Ray Utamachitt, Tyron B. Carter, Ubah Mohamed, Jackie Canino, Daphne Miles,
Legends of Tomorrow (or "Legends") has always been a little more... wonky.
Another part of CW's "Arrowverse," the shared universe of DC-comic based TV series that began with Arrow and span off of that, Legends was one of the later series and is something of a conglomeration of what came before.
And I mean that in a pretty literal way. In the series pilot, a time-traveling character, Rip, teleports into locations established within both Arrow and The Flash, kidnapping characters who had been previously introduced in these respective shows, as well as original characters, and transporting them to his own time machine (the Waverider) to fight a threat to time itself.
Season plots in this series also tend to be a lot more, let's say, flexible throughout this series. Conflicts in Arrow tend to be central to Oliver Queen's family or Starling City; The Flash is specifically about meta-human threats to Central City; Supergirl is about alien threats (or threats to aliens) in National City; but Legends just tackles "threats to the timeline." In earlier seasons, this manifested as historical figures or events not behaving or carrying out the way they're supposed to.
In the pilot of season 4, the Legends (the team's collective name) pick up John Constantine, a well-known figure within the DC universe who's a master of witchcraft and demonology, expertly able to cast spells and manipulate demonic spirits. Due to his new presence on the team and his area of expertise, it's no surprise that this season of the show focuses on more magically-centered threats to time. Apparently, the banishing of a powerful demon in the previous finale had the side effect of releasing a host of magical creatures throughout Earth's timeline, and it thus becomes the Legends' new task to play cleanup, identifying and capturing these creatures before they cause (too much) havoc wherever they land.
I've personally had a hard time with this series for its entire run. This is unfortunate, because in concept, I love the idea of an eclectic team of superpowered figures coming together to accomplish a common goal. Part of my issue is that there's too much character turnover from season to season. No fewer than three of my preferred/favorite characters (from a team of eight) from the first season exit upon the finale, so I felt that all my emotional investment in their individual arcs had been wasted.
I also feel that the powers/abilities boasted by each member is largely wasted in favor of sitcom-style personality dynamics, even though they're facing larger-than-life, deadly threats. Ray Palmer, whose advanced technological suit that he invented and can shrink to the atomic level, generally only uses it to escape occasional situations and spy on people. What about inventing other things? What about taking advantage of the the unique physics of size and density in different situations? What about the fact that he can use the suit to access basically any physicals space, squeezing through the tiniest of places? Zari, a character who wields a mystical totem necklace that can manipulate air, only uses it to blast occasional gusts of wind. She's also summoned a minor cyclone of air once to blow someone around. What about messing with air density, sound dynamics, or even temperature? Another character, Nate, gains the ability to turn his skin to steel and only uses it to block punches or stabs. I won't even start on the myriad of other things he could do if he even tried.
My only other gripe with the series that's made it hard for me to connect with it is actually on a similar vein: not only are the characters' abilities underused, but the character backgrounds and motivations are as well, which is a much larger crime. For most of season 4's team, I had little idea what their motivation was or why they were on the team. I think the biggest reason for this is the larger cast which, as mentioned before, shuffles around a bit too much from season to season. This season, there were eight actual "Legends" aboard the Waverider, including two new characters who were not aboard in the previous season, and three additional main characters who were not members of the titular team. It would be difficult for any show to introduce and establish motivations for new characters and renew old motivations for regular members with a cast that large.
Something I'm lukewarm on is that the show doesn't take itself very seriously. This is probably a good thing overall--with a logline that fantastical and ridiculous, it's good that it can laugh at itself and acknowledge how over the top it gets. But on the other hand, the show does in fact tackle legit, serious subject matter, like strained family relationships, racial prejudice, and death and grief. I don't think the show gives these ideas enough room to breathe and allows the characters space to process these things before lightning the mood with the next knee-slapper, and I think this hampers real character development.
It's not my intention to rag on this show too much. In fact, the reason I devoted so much space to some criticism is that I really do enjoy it, and I'm trying to process for myself (as I write this) why I feel like I'm becoming more distant/less invested in it.
Some things I very much appreciate are the strong found-family dynamic that's consistent throughout the whole series, the great imagination and truly ridiculous gimmicks they pull off, and how the characters do change and develop from one season to the next. There's also this sense of truly unknown adventure: as the team is traveling throughout Earth's whole history, tackling magical being that arne't supposed to be there, pretty literally anything can happen. In one episode, they're battling a unicorn at Woodstock. In another scene, they're facing down an evil fairy godmother who's attached to a colonial puritan. And in yet another, they're investigating the appearance of a tentacled sea monster in 1950s Japan.
Overall, I enjoy the show for the established dynamics and seeing how the team tackles whatever challenge the writers throw at them next. I do hope, however, that a little more character substance shines through in future seasons.
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